Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Did anybody else's parents do this?

71 replies

Happyeverafter73 · 29/07/2017 11:50

Growing up in the late 70s/early 80s, I remember my mum dropping my brother and me off at the cinema with a McDonalds and collecting us at the end of the film. We would have been around 6 and 8.

AIBU to think that that was bloody irresponsible? Or was that normal for the times?

OP posts:
DonaldStott · 29/07/2017 11:51

No. I definitely could not imagine my mum doing this.

Judashascomeintosomemoney · 29/07/2017 11:53

Quite normal here especially for Saturday Morning Pictures - whilst parents shopped nearby. Dropped off and picked up at the door. Only kids in there, don't remember adults being in there too.

SuperBeagle · 29/07/2017 11:53

Normal.

I'd say it's normal where I live even now (rural Aus). I often see quite young kids in groups/pairs at the movies with no adult nearby. Doesn't strike me as odd.

eyebrowsonfleek · 29/07/2017 11:54

Our local cinema had cinema time for kids during half term. Adults had to dump kids at start of movie and pick up at end. There was no 12a rating back then and one of the movies shown was Temple of Doom which game me massive nightmares.

GreenTulips · 29/07/2017 11:55

My mum used to do this - and if needed an adult would ask one in the queue to pay us in -

We were quite happy to go in by ourselves

Allthebestnamesareused · 29/07/2017 11:55

Yes - we used to be dropped off at the Saturday morning pictures from about the age of 7 and collected at the end of the morning. My parents would do their food shop in that time.

We would also go to the pub - they would go inside and we'd sit in the car/on village green with a bottle of coke and a bag of crisps. We also used to knock on the window (while they were playing darts) for our next "round"

Judashascomeintosomemoney · 29/07/2017 11:56

Yes should have explained, it was cinema sessions especially for kids - I didn't just get dropped off at random film showings were adults would have been going too.

TeaCake5 · 29/07/2017 11:57

I want allowed to go to mcdonalds as a child as it was seen as "common"

MoonfaceAndSilky · 29/07/2017 11:57

Pretty standard for those days. I remember my DM let us go to the swimming pool on our own at that age and I couldn't even swim ShockGrin

Bacere · 29/07/2017 11:59

No but years ago people were naive or nearly as innocent as children when you think about the number of historical cases of now solved/unsolved incidents that have come to light. That of course is just the reported ones.

MozzchopsThirty · 29/07/2017 11:59

Yes totally normal
I went with a 'boyfriend' aged 10 Shock
Also left at swimming pool
Left home alone

ButchyRestingFace · 29/07/2017 12:00

I remember my DM let us go to the swimming pool on our own at that age and I couldn't even swim

I think that's probably pushing it, even for the free range generations of yesteryear. Confused

Original poster
Happyeverafter73 · 29/07/2017 12:01

I guess I owe my mum an apology then!

OP posts:
ladybirdsarelovely33 · 29/07/2017 12:02

I grew up then and no way did our parents do that or did any of my friends' parents.

Scottishchick39 · 29/07/2017 12:03

My parents did this on a Saturday morning. If only I could do it with mine now 😂

Spikeyball · 29/07/2017 12:03

We didn't do it but loads did. Also going swimming with younger siblings as young as 5 with no adult. We were pretty much 'free range' from about age 7.

FamaLamaDingDong · 29/07/2017 12:03

Definitely normal.

I often wonder if people are more concerned nowadays or if it's because we wonder why our parents were do unconcerned. I remember walking 3 or 4 miles home from school across busy roads and a railway line in yr6. My dad would only get worried if I wasn't home by the usual time. But then mu dad always made sure I wore my seat belt but his mum just shoved all the kids in the back of an escorts van. Maybe in a few generations kids will literally be wrapped in cotton wool

HotLadybird · 29/07/2017 12:03

Fucking yes! Funnily enough, I remembered it yesterday and couldn't believe she'd done it! I must have been about 7. Mum worked next to the cinema and she intended to dump and run. I cried and wouldn't let her go. She died a few years ago so I can't even ask her about it! Glad it wasn't just me though!

Freddiesfling · 29/07/2017 12:04

Normal.. I had loads of freedom as a child and it's something I want my children to have where possible. I don't want to overprotect my children but obviously it's a fine line as I don't won't to put them through unnecessary risks!

Needsomeflapjacks · 29/07/2017 12:06

Ah the good old days!
Imagine how the mn threads would plummet if we could just leave them!!
No mil childcare threads,no people wanting to dump 5 dc with a friend, no worrying about cm holidays,
We even had all night cinema showings. I remember going at 14!!

YetAnotherUser · 29/07/2017 12:07

I remember going to see teenage mutant ninja turtles when I was about 8 and my brother 10, dad dropped us off and picked us up.

Also my mum refused to watch super Mario Bros with us so she went and saw something else while we did lol

NamasteTheFuckAwayFromMe · 29/07/2017 12:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Freddiesfling · 29/07/2017 12:11

Oh and another thing I remember during our summer holidays my parents would drink at adults only pubs and give us money to go on the arcade machines in the same complex.. we were about 6 and 8!!

KurriKurri · 29/07/2017 12:13

My uncle and aunt used to in the sixties - drop me and my cousin off at saturday morning cinema - we were about 8. And my Mum used to do it at our local cinema which was very small - you couldn't get out without going past the woman on the desk who knew everyone anyway.

I wouldn't have done it with my kids at six/eight(they were born mid eighties)- but by the time they were that age, cinemas were big complexes and they could easily have wandered off or got lost. I;d have done it when they were about 11probably.

Serialweightwatcher · 29/07/2017 12:19

I remember my lovely late dad dropping me and friends off to see Star Wars when I was 12 but don't think I went to cinema without parents before then - we had to go into town though so maybe that's why ... think nowadays we are more fearful for kids and rightly so - too many risks involved from the amount of traffic around to the amount of drug takers etc - I know there were problems around then but not to the extent there are today